Over 200,000 people back petition for Apple to keep iPhone headphone socket

The internet has been abuzz these last few months with rumours that Apple is planning to do away with the iPhone’s headphone socket in time for the 2016 editions – it will enable the company to make the phone thinner than ever and flog a few wireless Beats headphones at the same time. If it actually happens.

Apple has had nothing to say on the matter but that hasn’t stopped more than 200,000 people expressing their ire at this proposed change. “Apple is about to rip off every one of its customers again,” begins a petition to get the firm to change course on a decision it may not have even made yet.

A sign of just how passionate iPhone fans are? Or an indication of how many people have too much time on their hands? Those behind the petition say they’re worried about users having to fork out for new headphones and the mountains of electronic waste that will be created along the way.

Apple’s corporate playbook

“This is right out of the Apple corporate playbook,” continues the petition blurb. “A few years ago it swapped out the original iPod-dock connector with a new one, making countless cords, cables and chargers obsolete.”

There’s no doubt that Apple has never been shy of ditching older technology, from the DVD drives on its laptops to the 30-pin iDevice connector previously mentioned. It certainly wouldn’t be out of character for the Cupertino company to press ahead with a new wired or wireless audio standard.